Vienna to keep $3.9M in industrialist’s taxes

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

A visiting judge has ruled that industrialist John C. Rebhan, who died in late 2008 at his vacation home in Florida, was a resident of Vienna Township when he died.

The ruling means that the $3.9 million in estate taxes that Vienna Township received in February 2010 will remain with Vienna Township and not go to the city of Warren, which filed legal action in Trumbull County Probate Court to obtain the money.

The city argued that because Rebhan also had a home on East Market Street in Warren, his estate taxes should go to Warren.

Judge R.R. Denny Clunk of Alliance, a retired Stark County probate judge, ruled that the evidence showed that Rebhan’s residence, known in legal terms as his “domicile,” changed in 2002 from 3625 East Market St. in Warren to 5000 Creekside Boulevard in Vienna Township.

Former Phar-Mor owner Mickey Monus began the construction on the home on Creekside but didn’t complete it.

Judge Clunk was assigned to the case after Trumbull County Probate Judge Thomas A. Swift recused himself. Judge Swift is a Vienna Township resident and employed Rebhan’s ex-wife, Susan, for a time in the probate court.

Evidence showed that Rebhan, who owned Warren Fabricating Corp. in Warren Township and other Trumbull County factories, used his home on East Market Street less and less between 1996 and 2002, Judge Clunk wrote in his judgment entry.

Rebhan acquired the home in Vienna Township in 1996, though it was not habitable until about 2001 or 2002, the entry said.

Brian Darbey, Vienna Township police chief, testified that he responded to an alarm at the Vienna Township home on Aug. 14, 2000, and Rebhan told him he was living at the residence.

Though the swimming pool at the Warren home was used as part of the wedding of Rebhan’s daughter, Regina, in June 1995, the Warren home increasingly became a location for Rebhan’s office and storage for antiques, the judge wrote.

Rebhan acquired the Warren home in 1976, the judge said. Susan Rebhan testified that “in later years,” the Warren home was “filled with antiques at a point where it was not livable, particularly the kitchen, which was stacked with antique magazines and Christie’s auction catalogues,” and the “house was more like a museum.’”

The Trumbull County Auditor’s Office said $3,922,357 in estate taxes were distributed to Vienna township in February 2010. A short time later, the township reimbursed the county $211,858 because that amount belonged to other jurisdictions.

Of the $211,858, $28,023 went to the village of Lordstown, $165,123 to the city of Warren, $6,499 to Boardman Township, and $12,213 to “Sandusky Township” in Erie County Ohio, Trumbull County records say.

Vienna Township received another estate-tax distribution of $79,806 in August 2010, the auditor’s office said.

Atty. Matthew VanSuch, who represented Vienna Township, said it appears that the Ohio Department of Taxation is planning to appeal the decision by Judge Clunk on the grounds the state did not get to sufficiently review the estate-tax return before the distributions were made.

Because of this, Vienna Township is holding the estate tax distributions in a separate account until the matter is fully resolved.